Second Life to debut beta trials on mobile

February 20, 2008

Second Life will soon be resident on mobile

Second Life, a 3D virtual world online platform created by Linden Lab, will be available on 3G handsets via Vollee’s streaming mobile games service.

Beta trails for the Second Life Grid – styled as an inter-connected platform which extends beyond the mainland of Second Life – will be open to users who pre-register on http://www.vollee.com/secondlife.

“The implication here is that the bar for mobile media has been raised,” said Julian Corbett, head of business development at Vollee, Redwood City, CA. “What we are delivering is an experience people have come to expect with a PC and broadband but now on a phone with a 3G connection.”

Vollee’s Second Life on mobile lets users explore, interact and communicate online by taking into account screen size and key layout by downloading the platform directly to a 3G mobile handset.

Second Life offers “residents” an opportunity to lead a “virtual life” online, with the commercial and social interactions mirroring the real world.

“What we want to do is provide a true cross-platform experience that mobile users will enjoy and continue to come back to,” Mr. Corbett said.  “The expectation is that the many people who enjoy Second Life online will be able to continue that experience on their handset at a level they have come to expect.”

Vollee’s interactive video streaming platform optimizes compression to minimize bandwidth requirements.

The Second Life mobile beta trials start in May, but users can pre-register now.

“We also want to showcase how the Vollee technology can mobilize virtual worlds and online communities so as to extend their reach beyond the PC to the billions of mobile consumers,” Mr. Corbett said.

“We will also see that the service is beneficial to mobile operators as well, since the connected application has potential far beyond any current standalone, downloadable mobile content,” he claimed.